Glencoe Historical Society
at the
Eklund History Center & Garden

The following article appeared in the March 2, 2006 issue of the Glencoe News.

Old Clothes, New Home

by Robert Elfinger
staff writer

When she wasn’t twirling on ballroom floors in far flung countries, Glencoe socialite Helen Sharpe threw grand masquerade parties in her lakefront home.

During those escapades, Sharpe racked up an astounding collection of garments that encompasses the diverse fashions of the 20th century.

“It sounds excessive but the woman lived for almost 102 years,” said Tina Sharpe, Helen’s daughter-in-law. “She was a saver, thinking some day she’d wear them again.”

“She loved clothes,” said her son Robert Sharpe, 75. “It’s like asking a woman why she has so many pairs of shoes. Some things just aren’t answerable.”

Now, many of those clothes and shoes will be preserved and available for public viewing, thanks to Robert Sharpe, who donated his mother’s vintage outfits to the Glencoe Historical Society. Sharpe, a New York resident, returned to Glencoe when his mother died Jan. 19. While in town, he attended a Glencoe Historic Preservation Commission meeting to inquire about having the family home designated a landmark. At the meeting he asked commissioners if they knew anyone who would be interested in hundreds of articles of vintage clothing. Someone suggested society board member Bob Zahniser who came to the house to breeze through the collection, which took up a large room and four spacious closets.

“She had a beautiful collection of clothes, shoes and hats, and they’re in such incredible condition,” Zahniser said. “It’s so extensive. There are truck loads of stuff. We’re now just digesting all of it.”

The clothes, because of their passé style and petite size, were impossible to pass down to family or friends. Helen Sharpe stood 4-11 and weighed less than 100 pounds while wearing her size 4 shoes, Robert Sharpe said. Most of her clothes were custom-made and purchased from small boutiques throughout the world.

“My parents traveled around the world and threw great costume parties,” Robert Sharpe said. “One thing I found was a flapper dress. I could hardly picture my mother wearing this.” “She was a tiny woman and none of us will fit into any of it,” said Tina Sharpe, who had just found a petite nurse uniform from her mother-in-law's days as a volunteer nurse during World War II.

The knee-high Red Cross uniform is baby blue and features a large white collar, white cuffs, a white patch with a red cross on it and two oversized pockets and large buttons in front. Society members deemed it one of the most historically significant pieces in the collection.

Tina Sharpe pulled another old dress off a rack that sparkled as if it was in the California sun. The custom-made, hand-beaded dress came from a West Coast boutique but was made in Hong Kong. It is one of the more revealing dresses because it's sleeveless, short and semi-transparent.

Zahniser also pointed out a leopard pattern dress that he said was outlandish yet modest. The long full-piece dress had a wide collar, long sleeves and black buttons in front.

“This is really vintage Glencoe clothing,” Zahniser said. “It shows the way people dressed and the typical lifestyle of Glencoe during different eras.”

The collection also includes hats that hug the head and have floppy bills that hang down to the eyebrows as well as an assortment of pill box hats made popular by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Last week, the Glencoe Park District sent seven workers and a truck to move the clothes to the home of society board member John Carothers.

He will store the clothes in his basement until “our textile people go through it and decide what we’d keep and show with certain eras of clothes,” said Ellen Shubart, society president.

“The rest of the clothes could be sold at a flea market, used in a fashion show or donated to other museums, societies or the Salvation Army,” she said.

“It’s really a blessing because we did not know what we were going to do with all of it,” Robert Sharpe said. ”We were about to give it all to the Salvation Army. They were our savior.”

Robert Sharpe also donated his father Byron’s 1883-patented A.E. Whitmore double-barrel shotgun. Byron was an avid quail hunter but his enthusiasm did not rub off on Robert. “I was not the hunter. I fired it once and it almost knocked me over.”